The cumulative interweaving of two strangers’ personal relationship and careers can surprisingly become the most transformed years of their lives. That’s certainly the case for journalists-turned-filmmakers Janay Boulos and Abd Alkader Habak with their latest professional project. Their new documentary, ‘Birds of War,’ captures the rise of their unexpected romance, which is set against a political conflict that has rarely been seen through an intimate lens.

Boulos and Habak wrote, directed and served as the cinematographers on the movie. They also served as producers on the film with Sonja Henrici.

‘Birds of War’ chronicles how a simple text exchange marks the beginning of the love story between Boulos and Habak. With international journalists banned from reporting on the Syrian civil war, outlets like the BBC must rely on activists on the ground to provide footage.

Trading text messages and voice notes between London and Aleppo, Boulos tasks Habak to capture editorially approved stories. However, their story gradually and unexpectedly shifts from a working relationship to something more personal.

The film traces their parallel lives – Boulos becoming disenchanted with journalism, and Habak facing the inevitable fall of Aleppo – as they grow closer. As both Syria and Boulos’ homeland of Lebanon undergo dramatic developments, the couple reflects not only on the sacrifices made because of politics and war, but also on what they’ve gained.

‘Birds of War’ will premiere during the World Cinema Documentary Competition at this year’s Sundance Film Festival this Saturday, January 24 at The Yarrow Theatre in Park City. To help promote the movie’s premiere at the Utah-based festival, Boulos and Habak generously took the time recently to talk about penning, helming, shooting and producing the feature during an exclusive interview over Zoom.

Film Factual (FF): Together you wrote the new documentary, ‘Birds of War.’ What was your inspiration in making the film? How did production on the movie begin?

Abd Alkader Habak (AAH): Well, we’re both journalists. Janay started working at the BBC, and I was a civilian journalist in Syria when the revolution started in 2011.

So we both have experience working with cameras. I am also a cinematographer, and have lived most of my life with a camera.

We have been working together since 2016. At the time, I was in Syria and she was here in London.

Janay Boulos (JB): We wanted to use our archive that we’ve been collecting over the years to tell a bigger story. We found that the best way to tell this bigger story was through our personal story. That’s how the film came about.

FF: Speaking about the archive footage, how did you decide which clips and photos to include in the film?

JB: Everything in the film is our personal footage. The most recent footage we included in the film is from 2024 and 2025.

We’ve filmed ourselves throughout this process. We’ve also had a few additional cinematographers who filmed us in different places. But all of it is our footage,

When we decided that the story in the film would be our love story, that really dictated what footage we would include. So we were looking at the timeline from 2016 up until the present. We chose pivotal moments in both our lives that were important in the trajectory in our relationship. So having that sort of timeline really helped us decide what to include and what not to include the film.

FF: Speaking of the cinematography, how did you approach visually capturing the footage that you ultimately included in the documentary?

AAH: On my end, I was shooting most of the events that were happening around me. It was almost like living in a war zone.

So I was trying to document. as much as I could of what was happening around me. For example, I had access to Al-Quds Hospital, which was the last hospital that remained functioning in Aleppo (during the Syrian Civil War). So I was trying to document as much as I could there during that time.

But you don’t have time in a war zone to think about cutaways in the camera, and how were going to film things. Everything happens in a second, so you have to move quickly. So you don’t have time to think about how you’re going to direct and shoot the film. It wasn’t easy at all, but this is how it is in the war zone there.

JB: For me, I’ve had cameras for as long as I can remember, from about the time I was eight or nine. I’ve always filmed, as it’s a way for me to process life into recorded things. So my archive footage system is mostly documenting things and trying to understand the world through my camera.

FF: Besides crafting the idea for ‘Birds of War,’ you both also directed the project together. How did you approach helming the feature together, especially when you were separated from each other?

JB: We had the archive ready. So when we started to make the film, we knew we had to bring in a bigger team to help us go through the archive and to find the story. So we were very blessed with a few grants and support to be able to take the time to develop the story. That really helped us with the team that we had to find the core of it in the love story.

FF: Besides penning and directing the movie, you both also served as producers. How did producing the film help the production?

JB: Well, we have a production company (Habak Films) that we run out of London. We’ve produced several shorts for broadcast. We also have another feature documentary that we’re producing.

Even with that experience, we knew that we needed a more experienced producer for this one. Since it’s also a big feature film, which we haven’t dealt with before, and it’s a personal story, we needed people to give us that distance.

Sonja Henrici, our producer, has been extremely supportive since day one. Screen Scotland, who supported the film, really believed in us and the story. That’s what kind of got us to where we are.

AAH: When we talk about bringing another producer on board, we have to choose the perfect producer. It’s a really personal story, so we need someone we can trust, as the film was really confidential.

We never talked about the film in public, and it was never pitched in any platform, anywhere. But we also thought about how we needed someone who believes in the story at the same time. We needed someone who would give us space to work on the project.

FF: Like you just mentioned, while you were making the documentary, you didn’t publicize the filmmaking process. Did that decision create any challenges you had to overcome, or did it actually help in shaping the story? What was the experience like of making the movie without being able to promote the process publicly as you went along?

JB: I think that protected us personally, because when we’re talking about the film, which is our personal life, it’s emotionally draining. Publicly pitching a movie is very important, because that’s how you get funders, partners on boards and broadcasters.

But it’s also emotionally. draining for us. So we didn’t want to expose ourselves before we knew exactly what we were doing.

Like I said, it took us a couple of years to develop and understand the story. So I felt that going to the market earlier would have just added more questions than answers.

AAH: Another challenge that we had was going through the archive, actually. It was especially difficult with my archive, because most of the archive I have contains bloody footage. After I arrived in the UK, I never opened my archive until we needed it for the film.

But when we started making this film, this archive needed to be watched. It was really tricky for me, due to the trauma.

At the same time, we thought about protecting the team we were working with. So I went through all of the footage and I marked it like a traffic light system. That process helped protect our editor and our producer from going through all of the footage.

FF: Did not being able to initially publicize ‘Birds of War’ help you shape the tone and message you wanted to convey?

JB: Yes, definitely. As valuable as it is to have partners on board, it’s also very valuable to have the space to develop a project on your own. So when you do begin to discuss and publicize the film, you know exactly what your film is.

We were also really keen on having a senior editor join us. So Claire Ferguson really steered everything, and she supported us in finding the story.

We did expand the team, but we stayed very small. I think that that intimacy that we had really developed a love and care for everybody on the team. That made the film film genuine, and not influenced by external factors.

FF: Speaking of working with Claire Ferguson during the editing process, at what point did she come on board? How did she begin helping to shape the movie and find its story?

JB: Claire, who was our supervising editor, had worked with our editor, Will Hewitt, before. I think she was a mentor to him in one of his courses, so they had previously known each other.

Will was our main editor, and Claire came on board about a year, or maybe more than a year, into the production…

AAH: It was more than a year.

JB: She would work with us on finding the core of the story and the narrative. So we’d edit cuts, and then she’d watch them. Then we’d have sessions where we’d go through them with her. Then we’d go back and work with Will.

We were even editing at the last instance, after we found out we were accepted into Sundance. We hired an additional editor, Tanya Singh, who’s extremely creative. She, as a fresh pair of eyes, was also able to support Will and work with Claire.

Then, at the last minute where we had to deliver the final cut to Sundance, we had Claire supervising and Will and Tanya editing. So, it was an intensive workshop in this last period.

FF: Speaking about Sundance, ‘Birds of War’ is premiering in the World Cinema Documentary Competition. What does it mean to both of you to share the movie at the festival and have an international audience experience the story?

AAH: It’s still a bit nerve-wracking because the movie’s about our personal lives. Even our close friends never knew about this period in our lives because we never talk about it with them. So to share all of this information is truly a bit scary.

But at the same time, I believe in the message in the story, as well as the overall film. I believe that this film is going to change something.